Community Grant Program

Hidden Valley Elementary School
Santa Rosa

Will implement In School Programs to Increase Reach of Education for Dairy, Healthy Eating and Nutrition, which focuses on hands-on nutrition education. The school’s 530 students will engage in dairy-focused food science lessons, recipe contests with garden-grown ingredients and dairy farm tours, while learning about balanced nutrition and sustainable food systems. 

Pasture Raised Kids
Fort Jones

A nonprofit serving children in rural Siskiyou County where food insecurity is high. Its Milk Matters: Dairy Literacy for Healthier Kids in Siskiyou program will teach children ages 4 to 12 about the nutritional value of dairy and sustainable farming practices through interactive lessons, dairy tastings and educational farm tours. 

Arts in Action Community Charter Schools
East Los Angeles

Will launch Dairy-ing to Try Something New, an initiative designed to bring culturally relevant dairy recipes, food science lessons and agricultural education to its transitional kindergarten through fifth grade students. 

The Let’s Eat Healthy Community Grant program advances the activation of Dairy Council of California’s Let’s Eat Healthy Initiative, engaging champions to empower healthier children, families and communities by investing in great ideas and partnerships to meet community needs.

This funding program supports collaborative solutions to provide equitable access to evidence-based nutrition education, dairy agricultural literacy and nutritious foods that include milk and dairy foods.

Grant Program Goals

• Advance nutrition security by increasing access to healthy, wholesome foods, including milk and dairy foods, to support healthy, sustainable eating patterns across key life stages.
• Increase access to evidence-based, consistent, age-appropriate, culturally inclusive nutrition education.
• Enhance food literacy and dairy-inclusive agricultural literacy. 
• Elevate the Let’s Eat Healthy network of California champions.

Funding Tracks

Proposals must engage project collaborators and target audiences in at least one of the following funding tracks:

• Child Nutrition 
• Community Health
• School Wellness 

Proposal Priorities

Projects must address at least one of the following proposal priority areas: 

• Nutrition security that enhances the accessibility of milk and dairy foods as part of any of the following: federal child nutrition programs, school environment or community setting.  
• Food literacy that supports dairy agricultural literacy as part of farm-to-school efforts.  
• Nutrition education that focuses on integrating educational programs as part of food access programs.  
• Nutrition education that focuses on enhancing nutrition programming within any of the following settings: school environment, child care or community. Project may address the following: 
  • Campaign activation promoting milk and dairy foods.
  • Promotion of milk and dairy foods through cultural foods, traditions and food literacy programming.
• Engagement of youth ambassadors and/or university dietetic program supporting or leading nutrition education, dairy agricultural literacy and/or nutrition security project that promote dairy in a school or community setting.

Grant Criteria 

• Proposals must be consistent with the values of Let’s Eat Healthy and align to at least one Let’s Eat Healthy strategic framework goal and objective. 
• Projects must address at least one of the proposal priority areas. 
• Projects must demonstrate effective utilization of solutions and educational tools provided by Dairy Council of California.  
• Projects must be implemented and evaluated by December 31, 2025.

Eligibility 

• Applicants must represent a legal entity in California (school, district, nonprofit, local government, community organization, university, etc.).
• Applicants must either represent or collaborate with organizations that align with at least one of the following sectors outlined in the Request for Proposals’ funding tracks: Child Nutrition, Community Health and School Wellness. 

Funding Availability

• A total of $30,000 is available to be awarded. Dairy Council of California plans to fund 3-6 awards.
• Proposals for community grants may request up to $10,000. 

Applications are now closed for the 2024–2025 Let’s Eat Healthy Community Grants. Stay connected and engaged with Let’s Eat Healthy to learn about future funding opportunities.